This was a very hard decision to make as our district has so many great Rotary clubs with amazing accomplishments. How do you pick your favorite child? But these three clubs have many attributes in common …. Consistency, working with local organizations and government leaders, engaging member activities, supporting local and international projects, Rotary district leaders, a club President that has rallied its members around the District Club Awards, supporting district events … and supporting The Rotary Foundation … “Doing Good in the World”. What is different among the three clubs is the “feeling” of the club meetings, not bad, just different, and good.
Traditional Rotary Club? Possibly … but open to new ideas.
They also have similar challenges: Membership
Here is a brief description of some of the highlights of each club. This is not to be considered a complete list of the extent of what these Rotary Clubs do but to add color on my decision:
Governor’s Bell for Small Club (under 30 members):
Rotary Club of Millbrae
This is a small Rotary Club “The Club that Can” with about 23 members which has a history of community outreach and working with other Non-Profits including the Lions, education and scholarship programs with local schools, sponsoring a high school Interact club, establishing the local Rotary Park, and working together to rebuild a community center with other NGO’s. Their annual Lunar Fest fundraiser has grown from 50 attendees to over 120 (limit of the restaurant) which includes local politicians, the Lions, other service clubs, and NGO’s. Millbrae Club members include local government officials and business leaders. Their two new members Joe and Sheri won Best Costume (handmade!) at DisCon18.
Governor’s Bell for Medium Club (31-70 members):
Rotary Club of South San Francisco
The founders of this club had the foresight to establish Rotary Plaza, a senior living facility with about 183 units for low income housing 40 years ago. With the financial strength and leverage of Rotary Plaza the club recently remodeled the entire facility and all of the units, and has been working for 5 years on a new facility in downtown South San Francisco on Miller Avenue. The Miller Avenue project finally broke ground this last year, will offer about 83 low income housing units and a community meeting room. The club has its own 2 week international student cultural exchange program for about a dozen local high school student to its sister city in Japan, all funded by the club. The Rotary Club of South San Francisco was recently honored in February by receiving The Mayor’s Award for 2017 from South San Francisco.
Governor’s Bell for Large Club (over 71 members):
Rotary Club of San Francisco (#2)
Founded in 1908, this is the 2nd oldest Rotary club and is the anchor of the west coast. Many large Rotary Clubs in our District do the same things as SF#2 including honoring local first responders, but SF#2 just does it at a higher level and draws out the local Chiefs of Police, Fire, Sheriff Departments, and Coast Guard, and honoring two members from each service. They have a World Rotary Day program where the local government Consul Generals are invited. Their club members started Rotarplast and Alliance for Smiles which are supported by many of our district Rotary Clubs. Camp Enterprise (now RYLA) was started many years ago as a club project and was opened to other clubs over 10 years ago. I remember visiting the group in 2009 where there were about 60 high school students participating at Point Bonita Boys Scout facility in Marin. This year there were over 120 students from Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties with financial support form over 30 district clubs. SF #2 sponsors three Interact and one Rotaract club. This year the club sponsored a new large global grant project for Roots of Peace to plant pepper trees in Vietnam. Their goal is to plant 1 million trees by 2020. The club offer offers a monthly social, monthly golf, and many other fun events.
BEST CLUB AWARDS
These clubs have reached a high performance level of Club Service, Community Service, International Service, Vocational Service, Youth Service, Foundation, and Membership. These clubs are “well rounded vibrant” clubs.
Belmont and Redwood Shores
Foster City
Ignacio
Millbrae
Novato
Novato Sunrise
Pacifica
San Bruno
San Carlos
San Francisco (#2)
San Francisco Chinatown
San Rafael Evening
San Rafael Harbor
South San Francisco
Terra Linda
Woodside Portola Valley
MEMBERSHIP AWARD
Belmont and Redwood Shores
Daly City Colma Evening
Foster City
Ignacio
Menlo Park
Millbrae
Novato
Novato Sunrise
Pacifica
Redwood City
San Bruno
San Carlos
San Francisco (#2)
San Francisco Chinatown
San Francisco Evening
San Francisco West
San Rafael Evening
San Rafael Harbor
Sausalito
South San Francisco
Terra Linda
Woodside Portola Valley
FOUNDATION AWARD
Belmont and Redwood Shores
Foster City
Ignacio
Marin Evening
Menlo Park
Millbrae
Novato
Novato Sunrise
Peninsula Sunrise
San Bruno
San Carlos
San Francisco (#2)
San Francisco Chinatown
San Francisco Evening
San Francisco Greater Mission
San Mateo Sunrise
San Rafael Evening
San Rafael Harbor
Sausalito
South San Francisco
Terra Linda
Woodside Portola Valley